Croatia
- historical and cultural
overview

Although Croatia
developed under the impact of many different
cultures - Greek, Roman, Celtic, Illyrian, Austrian, Hungarian,
Byzantine, Islamic - it gave its own and unique imprint to the
history of European civilization.

The origins

The
origins of the Croatian name are Iranian. The earliest mention of the
Croatian name as Horovathos
can be traced on two stone
inscriptions in Greek language and script, dating from around the year
200, found by the Black Sea (more precisely in the seaport Tanais on
the Azov sea, Krim). Both tablets are held in the Archeological museum
in St Petersburg, Russia.

One of the confluents to
Don river near the region of Azov is
called Horvatos (see [Pascenko],
p. 87).
The Croatian name can be traced to different sites in Ukraine, also
around Krakow in Poland, in Bohemia, and Austria, thus showing
migrations of the Croatian tribes to their
future homeland.

In the ``Bavarian
geographon'' (written in 666-890) there is
a description of various tribes in the north of Karpatian and
and Sudetian
mountains, where the Croats are also mentioned.

In the region of northern
Steiermark, Austria, (between
Judenburg and Leoben) there is a place called Kraubat.
The name appears many times in various
charters of the 11th and 12th centuries, and is written as Chrowat
(= Croat).

In the region of
Kärnten (old Karantia in the south of
Austria)
there is a place called Kraut,
also derived from the
Middle Age name Chrowat, mentioned in many charters of the
11th and 12th centuries.

In Kärnten
(Karantia) there existed a Croatian parish
already in the 10th century. Old manuscripts call it pagus
Crouuati,
which is obviously derived from the Croatian name (= Croatian parish).
The name appears even in Royal charters. According to investigations of
Felicetti this parish of `pagus Crouuati' spread precisely along the
Gosposvetsko polje, where the earliest Slavic Princes of Karantia had a
seat. It included also the region of today's Klagenfurt (Celovec),
capital of Karantia, together with the famous Church of Gospa Sveta
(Maria Saal, Maria in Solio, Maria ad Karanten), probably the oldest
Christian church in the region.The
above information regarding the Croats in
Austria are taken from Ferdo Sisic, one of the greatest Croatian
historians.

White Croats

Constantine
Porphyrogenitus (905-959), a
Byzantine emperor and writer,
mentions the state bearing the name of White
Croatia.
His description shows
that it occupied a wide region around its capital Krakow, in parts of
Bohemia, Slovakia, and Poland.
The state disappeared in 999. St.
Adalbert (Vojtech, 10th
century) was a descendant of the White Croats, son of the
White-Croatian prince Slavnik.
He was spreading Christianity,
education and culture, and to this end founded the benedictine
monastery in Brevnov in 993. Also St.
Ivan Hrvat, who died
in Tetin in Bohemia in 910, was a son of White-Croatian King Gostumil.
It is interesting to add that according to some American documents from
the beginning of this century there
were about 100,000 immigrants to the USA born around Krakow
(Poland) who declared
themselves to be Bielo-Chorvats,
i.e. White Croats
by nationality. See US Senate-Reports on the Immigration
commission, Dictionary of races or peoples, Washington DC,
1911, p. 40, 43, 105.

White
and Red Croatia in
the new homeland, described in in one of the earliest known Croatian
historical and literary texts - Ljetopis
popa Dukljanina.

Even today the
descendants of the White Croats live in
Bohemia. The surname Charvat
is still rather widespread
there.
For example a director
of the National Theatre Opera in Prague in 1990's was Mr Premysl Charvat.
An outstanding person in part of Prague called
Nove Mesto was Jan Charvat
(+1424). In the same quarter of
Prague there is a street called Charvatska
street even today. Villages in
Bohemia like Harvaci,
Harvatska
gorica
reveal its early Croatian inhabitants.

According to the Prague
Telephone Book
1999/2000 there are as
many as 516 individuals having names of possible Croatian root:

Charvat
and Charvatova (380, several
pages...),

Chorvat
and Chorvatova (10),

Chorvatovicova
(1),

Horvat
(21),

Horvath
and Horvathova (79),

Horvatik
and Horvatkova (14),

Horvatovic
and Horvatovicova (2),

Krobath
(1),

Krobot
and Krobotova (8).

CONCLUSION: Since the capital of Bohemia
today
(in 2000) has about 1,250,000 inhabitants, than assuming that each
telephone subscriber has at least three closest relatives in the mean,
we obtain that in a random set of 800 Prague citizens there will be at
least one with Croatian name. Many thanks to my dear friend Mr. Vlatko
Bilic for painstaking counting :)

Croatian national name Horvat
in the Vienna Telephone Book, Austria

The above table
represents only one page from The
Vienna Telephone Book (2007).
Its four columns contain the
following second names:

Horvarth, Horvat, Horvath

All of them are
variations of the standard Croatian name
that we use today: Hrvat(HR),
the
English version of which is Croat or
Croatian.
Please, note that we do not claim that all these persons from the book
are Croats by nationality. But it is without any doubt that the source
of their second names is Croatian.

The next page in
the Vienna Telephone Book is almost
entirely, throughout more than three columns, filled with other
versions of Croatian name:

Horwath, Horwarth, etc.

We have counted
more than 100 such names per column,
which makes altogether about 700
explicit Croatian
second names in the book! But many names in the telephone book
correspond to a family. If we take two or three members per family in
avarage, then we see that in Vienna only there are probably between
1400 and 2000 persons (if not even more), bearing the Croatian second
name. For the entire Austria the corresponding number is, of course,
much larger.

Similar is the
situation in Prague (Czechia), Budapest
(Hungary), Bratislava (Slovakia), and in Ljubljana (Slovenia).

Why is the Croatian
name so frequent in the mentioned
countries? A part of the story is related to White Croats,
and another part is here.

For comparison, in
The Zagreb Telephone Book
(Zagreb is the capital of Croatia) the second name of Horvat
and its various derivatives

See the flag of Croatian defensive
forces in 1526 during the tragic
battle with the Turks on the Mohac
Field, and another Croatian flag from 1529 during the first Turkish
seige of Austria's capital Vienna.

During the second
Turkish siege of Vienna in 1683, a
Croatian village called Krowotendörfel,
placed
immediately near the city walls, has been destroyed, and since then it
does not exist any more. The meaning of its name is precisely Croatian
Village! Its position corresponded to contemporary Spittelberg near the
Hofburg palace. For more details see [400
Jahre Kroaten in Wien].
Other names of Krowotendörfel
can also be encountered in the literature:

Crabathen Derffel

Crabatendörfel

Croathndörfel

Krowotendörfel

Crabatendoerfel

Krawattendörfel

Croatendörfel

Kroatendörfel
...

Among defenders of
Vienna in 1683 was a renowned
Croatian theologist and ecumenist panslavist Juraj
Krizanic, who was assasinated
during the Turkish seige.

The
Slavnik family had its coins with
inscription Mulin Civitas,
issued by Prince Sobjeslav
(?-1004), the oldest son of Slavnik. This confirms that the fortress of
Mulin near Kutna Hora (west of Prague in Bohemia) was a part
of their territory. It is assumed that the Slavnik's were
the leading tribe of the Croats in the 10th century in that
region. Their main seat was in the town of Libica, west of
Prague (near Kutna Hora). Thus we had two parallel Croatian states in
that period: White Croatia in Central Europe and
Dalmatian-Panonian Croatia near the Adriatic sea.

In 995, when White
Croatian troops led by Sobjeslav were
defending their Princedom from pagan tribes, White Croatia was
suddenly attacked by the Czech prince Premysl, destroying
their capital Libice and killing most of the Croatian
population. There
are some conjectures that several noble families in Poland
(like Paluk's) are descendants of White Croats, as well as
the family of Rozomberk (which seems to be related to the town of
Ruzomberok
in Slovakia). Sobjeslav was killed in 1004 on a bridge over
Vltava river in Prague, when Polish troops tried to occupy
the city.
See Ivica Sumic: U potrazi za "Hrvatskom Atlantidom" (In the
quest of "Croatian Atlantida"), Stecak, Sarajevo, No 64,
1999.

The following map of Chrobatia
(around Krakow, 10th
century) is from the Atlas To
Freeman's Historical Geography,
Edited by J.B.
Bury, Longmans Green and Co. (Third Edition 1903):

The name of the Croats is
met in many places throughout
Ukrainian soil. It is contained in Ukrainian written
documents since the 2nd century until the end of the 10th
century.
The famous Ukrainian chronicler Nestor from Kyiv
(in his "Povest vremennyh let", 1113) mentioned also
the White Croats inhabiting early-medieval Old-Ukrainian empire, known
as the Kyiv Rus'. According to a very old legend, one of the three
brothers who founded the
Ukrainian capital Kyiv was Horiv,
whose name might be
at least hypothetically
related to the Croatian name: Horvat. See [Hrvatska/Ukrajina],
p. 9, and [Pascenko],
p. 105.
Even today some of the Ukrainian citizens say for themselves to
be the White Croats. There are many proofs that the Croats
once lived in common with Ukrainian and Slovak people: their
language (very widespread ikavian dialects in Croatia and Slovakia,
ikavian
language in Ukraine),
legends, customs, many common toponyms
etc.

In central part of Kyiv
there are three hills: Starokyivska
gora,
gora Shchekovitza and gora Horevitza,
and even a street Horev
(ulica Horeva).
The very beginning of Nestor's "Povest Vremennyh let" mentions
the above legend: I bysha tri
brata: Kij, Shchek i Horev, i
sestra ih Lybed'. I sotvorisha grad vo imya brata svoego, i
narekoshe ego Kyiv.

Ukrainian archaeologist
Dr. Orest Korcinski has undertaken an
extensive study of White Croatian site from 8th-11th centuries near the
town of Stiljsko, not far from Lviv in Ukraine. He estimates that in
the 9th century the Stiljsko archaeological site
with environinig
settlements had nearly 40,000 inhabitants, more than Kiev at that time!
The
region of historical Pagania
around
the
Neretva river has many common toponyms and hydronyms with
Western Ukraine, like Neretva, Mosor, Ostrozac, Gat. Also Sinj,
Kosinj, Kostrena, Knin, Roc, Modrus, and many
other throughout Croatia and Western Bosnia. Too many to be
just an incidence.

There are numerous names of villages, hills
and rivers
in Slovakia, Czechia (especially in Moravia), Poland and
Ukraine, which have their obvious equivalents in Croatia and Bosnia -
Herzegovina. Many of them are indeed surprising:

The once prosperous and rich Ukrainian
village
of Horvatka
near Kyiv (note well: Horvat = Croat)
disappeared overnight in 1937, together with all of its
inhabitants, during Stalin's infamous collectivization,
sharing the tragic destiny of millions of Ukrainians.
The only witness is an innocent brook, called Horvatka,
today Hrobatka (Hrovatka), about 70 km south of
Kyiv. See "Marulic",
1998/2,
p.
263, and also [Pascenko],
p. 293. On the
brook of Hrovatka (~30 kms long right confluent of Dnipro) there is a
village bearing the same name Hrovatka, personal information (2010) by
mr. Djuro Vidmarovic, former Croatian ambassador to Ukraine
In the 1990s in Kyiv, Ukraine, a youth organization of scouts
was founded, and named - White
Croat (Bili Horvat; reported
by Croatian ambassador Gjuro Vidmarovic in 2000)!

Khorvatka (Horvatka) river, confluent of Dnipro, near Kyjiv. The map is
from [Malicky]

On the north of Croatia's captial there is
a
very small village called Velika
Horvatska (Great Croatia!), and
a small brook bearing the name Horvatska.
It reminds us about existence of White
Croatia.
We find it pertinent to mention that we know of several
cases during former Yugoslavia
in which young Croatian soldiers
were not allowed by Serbian officers
to declare that they were born in the village called
Velika Horvatska, but were pressed to declare a nearby village
Zbilj.

The brook of Horvatska near the
village of Velika Horvatska. Another village of Horvatska exists near
Klenovik, SW of the city of Varazdin north of Zagreb (many thanks to
mr. Nenad Hancic,
Duesseldorf, Germany, for this
information).

Old
Norwegian - Viking travel writers
Sigurd, Ohtere, and
Wulfstan from the 8th century mention the Kingdom
of
Krowataland on the territory of
today's Ukraine.
It has been investigated by a Czech historian and writer
Karel Krocha.

The
Byzantine Emperor Heraclius (610-641)
asked the Croats from White Croatia for help
in protecting his Empire from the penetration of the Avars.
As written by Byzantine Emperor Constantin Porphyrogenetus from
the middle of the 10th century,
a part of the White Croats, led by

two sisters Buga
and Tuga,
and five brothers Kluk, Lobel,
Muhlo, Kosjenc, Horvat,

moved to the territories
of present-day Croatia. This
happened in the 7th century. There they came in touch with the Romans
and romanized descendants of Illyrians, Celts and others.

Soon after their arrival
in the 7th century Croatians were
baptised and so accepted Christianity. The Croats were
the first among the Slavs who converted to
Christianity.

According to Byzantine
ruler Constantin Porphyrogenetus, the
Croats made an
agreement with the Pope Agaton
as early as in 679, in which
they obliged themselves not to undertake any offensive wars
against neighbouring Christian states. This was the first
international diplomatic agreement of the Croats with the
Holy See. The importance of this event has been pointed
out by the Pope John Paul II
in his speech held in the
Croatian language during his
apostolic visit to Croatia in Zagreb in September 1994. The
Pope also stressed the importance of more
than 13
centuries of Christianity among the Croats.

An Italian cartographer
Allodi in 1730 draw two Croatian
Kingdoms: the one is Regno
de Croazia
on the
Adriatic, and another is Belocroati(White
Croats) situated between Moravians and Romanians north of the
Carpathian Mountains. See Mile Vidovic, Povijest
crkve u Hrvata,
Crkva u svijetu, Split 1996., p. 29, or [Jolic,
p. 117] relying to the same reference, and see also Vicko
Rendic.

The Croats, indicated as Crouati,
see on the above map (below right). The map is from AD 540,
source Irlande, Bretagne, Scandinavie et
Germanie Septentrionale. Many
thanks to Mr. Stipe Botica from the
Faculty of Arts and Letters, University of Zagreb, for his information
about this source.

The Roman Empire was
divided in 395. Later the Croats entered
the Western Roman Empire. The historical border between the Eastern and
Western Roman Empire was the river Drina. It flows between present
Serbia and Bosnia, and in the past it divided in political and cultural
sense, two very different civilizations, which had been separated until
the penetration of the Turks in the 16th century. Later in 1054 this
division also defined the border of
the two Churches, one under Byzantium (Constantinople) and the other
under Rome. Let us mention that Montenegro and Albania belonged to the
Western Church. In 1184 the Serbian Orthodox Church penetrated by
military expansion to Montenegro. Until that time the territory of
Montenegro was a part of Red
Croatia. Serbia, and later
Montenegro, developed on
the heritage of the Eastern Roman Empire (or Byzantine Empire).

Today the name of
Montenegro is Crna Gora (Black Mountain).
However, historical evidence shows that the old name of Crna Gora
was Crmna
Gora, that is Red
Mountain,
derived from the name of Red Croatia. This is confirmed by the
existing mountain of Crmnica in contemporary Cr(m)na Gora.
See a very interesting
article by one of greatest Croatian historians [Vjekoslav
Klaic, Crvena hrvatska... PDF].

According
to Bulgarian scientist Gantscho
Tsenoff (1875-1952), professor at the university of Berlin,
the founder of Bulgarian state in
the first half of the 7th century was KROVAT
(or KURVAT).
Tsenoff points out that this reveals very
early and interesting connections between Bulgarians and
Croats. The third son of Krovat was Asparuh, a well known
name in Bulgarian history. See Ganco Cenov: "Krovatova B'lgaria i
pokr'stvaneto na B'lgarite", Plovdiv 1998, in particular pages
59 and 183 (the first 1937
edition was forbidden during the communist
period).

The earliest Croatian Princes and
Kings

The earliest known Croatian prince was Borna,
who ruled
from around 812 to 821.

Prince
Trpimir ruled from 845 to 864.
In 852 he issued the oldest
known governmental document in the Latin script, where the Croatian
name was mentioned (dux Chroatorum). The fact that his name is recorded
in the Cedad Gospels (from today's Italian city Cividale) shows the
cultural level of his state. The most famous Benedictine monk
Gottschalk found refuge at the Croatian court from 846 to 848. Trpimir
invited the Benedictines,
known as great promoters of education
and economy. One of the earliest Benedictine monasteries was built in
852 near Split.
In
the 11th century Croatian Benedictines had more than 40 monasteries,
mostly along the Adriatic coast. They contributed a great deal to the
cultural and material development of the Croats. On the photo you can
see a choir screen panel from Split, containing pentagram and nice
interlace patterns, 11th century.

Besides the name of Trpimir also the names
of
some other Croatian princes can be seen in Cedad Gospels:
Branimir, Braslav, their wifes, and escort.

In 871 the King of Italy
Ludovic II and Byzantine
Emperor Basil I defeated the Arabs in the city of Bari
(Italy). Croatian soldiers also participated in the battle, arriving to
Bari on Dubrovnik ships.

Some of the earliest
Benedictine monasteries in
Croatia were
founded in

Karin, 850,

Bisevo, islet near the
island of Vis, 850,

Rizinice (near Split),
852,

Zadar, St Krsevan,
908,

Nin, St Ambrosius,
941,

Nin, St Maria, 948,

Ugljan (on the island
of Ugljan near Zadar), 988,It is interesting that both names
Uljan and Uglian(o) can be seen on old maps of the island.

Today there are altogether eight
benedictine
communities for
nuns in Croatia: on the islands of Cres, Hvar, Krk, Pag,
Rab, and
in the towns of Sibenik, Trogir and Zadar. The only benedictine
monastary for monks that remained to these days is
Cokovac on the island of Pasman near Sibenik,
not far from Zadar. See redovnice
(nuns) and redovnici
(monks).

The
Croatian Prince Branimir made
further
steps in strengthening the relations with Rome. During the solemn
divine service in St. Peter's church in Rome in 879, Pope John VIII
gave his blessing to the prince and the whole Croatian people, about
which he informed Branimir in his letters. In his letter dated from 881
the Pope addressed Branimir as the `glorious prince'. This was the
first time that the Croatian state was officially recognized (at that
time the international legitimacy was given by the Pope). In Branimir's
time Venetians had to pay taxes to the Croatian state for their ships
traveling along the Croatian coast.

The
earliest Princes and Kings we
know of
lived in the 9th and the 10th century (see a figure of an unknown
Croatian Dignitary). The strongest among them was King
Tomislav,
who ruled from from 910 to 928. The previously mentioned Constantine
Porphyrogenitus, a Byzantine emperor, referred to him as the Croatian
King. In his time Croatia was
one of the most powerful states in
Europe. It had an enormous (for that time) army of 100,000
foot-soldiers and 60,000 horsemen, 80 larger and 100 smaller ships.
When Bulgaria occupied Serbia in 924, King Tomislav accepted and
protected many Serbs who had escaped and sought refuge in the Croatian
state. The Bulgarian tsar Simeon soon tried to spread his reign to
Croatia, but Tomislav defeated him in 927. The Serbs organized their
earliest internationally recognized Kingdom in 1217.

The Arabs began to attack
the Croatian coast in the 9th
century. So a Croat from Dalmatia, known under the Islamic name Djawhar
ben Abd Allah (911-992), was
taken as a slave to the court of
caliph Al-Khaim in Tunisia. Later he made a great career
becoming the
supreme general.
He conquered the land of pharaohs, thus extending the
Empire of Fatimids from the shores of the Atlantic to the
river Nile. He founded the new Egyptian capital
Al-Qahira (Cairo), the future
second largest Islamic city after
Baghdad. In 970 he built up the mosque named Al-Azhar (the
Brightest).

A very old mention of the
name of HORITS,
the ancient
name of the Croats (Horvat), can be found in the Latin work
``Historia adversus'' Pagano by Paulus Orosius (9th
century). Its translation into Old English has been made by
King Alfred (871-901). See [Mardesic],
p.
130.

As
is well known, many important monuments of pre-Romanesque
Croatian art have been found in the region of Knin
which used
to be the residence of Croatian Kings (11th century). Here are two
examples, both from the 9th century.

One
of the most important
discoveries of
Don Frano Bulic (1846-1936), an outstanding archeologist, is an
inscription in the Latin language from the sarcophagus of Croatian Queen
Jelena (10th century). Though it
was broken, Don Bulic put it
painstakingly together from 90 fragments. The advanced level of Latin
literacy, simply rhymed, is quite different from the stereotyped
``memento mori'', designed to fill the passer with the fear of death.
Here is the English translation of one of the most important Croatian
monuments, carved in 976:

In
this grave rests famous Jelena,
wife of King Michael (Kresimir),
mother of King Stephen
(Drzislav). She brought peace to
the Kingdom. On the eighth day of
October 976 from the incarnation of Our Lord she was buried here in the
4th indiction, 5th lunar cycle, 17th epacta, 5th solar cycle. While she
lived she was mother of the Kingdom and she became mother of the poor
and protectress of widows. You who look here say: God have mercy upon
her soul.

An
important monument is a stone
panel
from the 10th century mentioning the name of DUX CHROATORUM Drzislav,
a son of Queen Jelena. It contains nicely interlaced interlace
patterns.

An important Croatian Pre-Romanesque church is Sv. Spas
near Cetina river, built in the 9th century. It also has remains of
some
wattle
patterns.

Photos of Sv. Spas and the
spring of Cetina river below by Julija Vojkovic

Probably
the greatest achievement of
Croatian Pre-Romanesque sculpture is choir screen panel from the Church
of St. Domenica (Sv. Nediljica) in Zadar, with scenes of the Massacre
of the Innocents and the Flight to Egypt, created in the 11th century
(André Malraux included it into his "Musée
imaginaire").
The Croats were deeply devoted to the Western Church. When Pope
Alexander III visited Zadar
in 1177, one of the most beautiful European cities, he was solemnly
greeted by people singing very old songs in their Croatian language (as
noted by Italian chronicler Baronius):

There
is no doubt that this was Croatian glagolitic
singing
(see an article
by dr. Marija s. Agnezija Pantelic in [Badurina,
p. 106]). During the shameful aggression of Venetians and Crusaders in
1202, the Christian city of Zadar, a dangerous rival of Venice at the
time, was robbed and terribly destroyed. Geffroy de Villehardouin, a
French chronicler who described the siege and destruction of Zadar for
the good of Venice during the Crusade, wrote that Zadar
in
Sclavonia (a synonym of Croatia at that time) is one of the best
fortified cities, surrounded with strong walls,
and that it is difficult
to find a more beautiful, better fortified and richer city.The
City was again destroyed

in the Second World
War; carpet-bombed 72 times
by
Anglo-American air-forces by the end of 1943 and
in the beginning of 1944, including its historical centre,
with great human and material
losses.
WHY? We still do not know. The City had
no military importance.

bombed during the
Greater Serbian aggression
in 1991-95, and for long periods without water and electricity.

Pope
John Paul II visited Bosnia
and Herzegovina twice (1997,
2003), and three times Croatia (1994, 1998, 2003). His
apostolic visit to the city of Zadar in 2003 will always be remembered,
like the one by Pope Alexandar III in 1177.

Zadar
was an important European cultural center at that time due to its Benedictine
monastery of St Krsevan (founded
in 986, shelled by the Serbs in
1991), in whose scriptorium the famous Vekenega
Evangelistary.
This richly illuminated Latin text from the 11th century is held today
in the Bodleian Library in Oxford (which also possesses other important
Croatian documents written in the Latin, Glagolitic
and Croatian
Cyrillic Script). Even older is
the the Cika Breviary
from the 11th century, written in the
Latin script in the same scriptorium in Zadar. This jewel of Croatian
culture (see on the right) represents the oldest known breviary in
Europe, and is kept in the Library of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences
in Budapest. It also contains musical notation. Another important book
written in 1081/82 in Zadar scriptorium of St Krsevan is Osor
Evangelistary (Osor is a town on the island of Cres), known as
Evangeliarium Absarense, held in the Vatican Library (Vat.Bibl. Ms
Bergianum Lat. 339). Zadar is also the oldest university center of
Croatia (1396). For additional information about Croatian art in Zadar see here. Dalmatian
rounded beneventana that was in use in
the Zadar scriptorium of St Krsevan shows original characteristics
different from the south-Italian round beneventana.

The church of St. Simun
in Zadar possessed an old codex
written in Latin script, containing well known lauds from12th century.
Zadar had a famous scriptorium at that time. The book disappeared by
the end of 19th century, and since 1893 is held in Staatsbibliothek in
Berlin, see [Strgacic,
p. 374]. Numerous
Croatian valuables are held throughout Europe. See a list of Glagolitic books and manuscripts
only, held
outside of Croatia. Pre-Romanesque architecture in Croatia is described
in detail in works of [Delonga].

It is interesting that King Richard
the
Lion-Hearted (1157-1199)
sojourned in Zadar (and not in Dubrovnik
as it has been believed). Also Henry of Lancaster, the future King
Henry IV, visited Zadar and Dubrovnik during his pilgrimage to the Holy
Land in 1392 and 1393. See [Mardesic],
p.
134-135.

Among important Croatian
Preromanesque jewels from 11th
century we
mention the church of Sv. Mihajlo in the town of Ston
(on the Peljesac
peninsula, west of Dubrovnik). It has
interesting frescos representing various saints, and
a Croatian dignitary (probably Mihajlo Viskovic):

In
the 12th century the famous Arabian
geographer al-Edrisi (Idrisi) was working at the court of the the
Norman King Roger II in Palermo. After 15 years of study he prepared a
huge map of Europe (3.4x1.5 m) where one can find

The map appeared in 1154,
when many contemporary countries
still do not exist in Europe. Especially important is a description of
GARUASIA in the accompanying book of commentaries, where he states that
Croatia starts with Istrian cities of Umag, Novigrad, Porec, Rovinj,
Pula, Medulin, Labin, Plomin. Then al-Edrisi describes the cities from
Bakar to Dubrovnik. It is known that he visited Senj, Knin, Biograd and
some other Croatian cities. The original map is kept in the Bodleian
Library in Oxford, while partial copies can be found in Paris, St
Petersburg, Constantinople and Cairo.

Very
important historical source for early Croatian history
is Libellus Gothorum,
a chronicle from 12th century
known in Croatia as Ljetopis
popa Dukljanina and Croatian
Chronicle. It was written by
Archbishop Grgur of Bar
(a city in Boka
kotorska,
a region annexed to Montenegro in 1945), born
in Zadar. The chronicle represents the oldest
historiographic work of Croatian Middle Ages.
There exist two versions, Croatian and
Latin. Especially important is Grgur's presentation of assembly
(SABOR) on the Duvno field ("in planicie Dalme"), and above
all his terms for Croatian territories:

CROATIA
ALBA (White Croatia), and CROATIA
RUBEA (Red Croatia).

The source Sclavorum
Regnum, known as Ljetopis
popa
Dukljanina and Croatian
Chronicle, is also the earliest
known
literal text written in Croatian language. Marko
Marulic translated this
chronicle from Croatian
into Latin in 1510, and the manuscript is held in Belgrade.
The title is

REGVM
DALMATIE, ET CROATIAE HISTORIA
VNA CVM SALONARVM
DESOLITIONE

Another version is
written in Croatian, and in Latin script,
due to Jerolim Kaletic from 1546,
held in the
Vatican. It is a copy of Dmine Papalic's copy of Croatian
Chronicle. There are clear
indications that the original was written in the Glagolitic
script
(the opinion goes back
to
Franjo Racki, and is further supported by Muhamed Hadzijahic from
Sarajevo and by
Ivan Muzic from Split).
For more details see a monograph [Hrvatska
kronika 547.-1089.] and the
references therein.

It is interesting that
Shakespeare's The Tempest
has its source in Ljetopis popa
Dukljanina, see
here..

Toma
Arcidiakon (Thomas arhidiaconus
Spalatensis,
1200-1268),
an important chronicler from the city of
Split, wrote in his Historia
Salonitana
that (a part of) Croatian tribes arrived to their present day
homeland not as pagans, but as Aryan Christians (though very
rude):

That is why in Croatian
history we do not know of any single
and precise date of christianisation, as in the case
of other European nations, like
Ukrainians, Czechs, Bulgarians etc. It seems that we
can speak only about conversion
of parts of newly arrived
Croatian Aryan Christians to Catholicism in their new
homeland. Indeed, Toma
Arcidiakon writes the following:

Henry
S. Hart in his book "Venetian Adventurer
Marco
Polo" (Oklahoma, 1967)
states that Marco Polo
was a "descendant of an old
Dalmatian family which had come from Sibenik, Dalmatia, and
settled in Venice in the 11th century". Hart also claims
that "crews of the Venetian ships were freemen, so many of
them Slavonians (Croatians) from the Dalmatian coast that
the long quay by St. Mark's was and is known as the Riva
degli Schiavoni (or Riva
od Hrvatov in Croatian sources).
It is said that Marco Polo had a home on the island of
Korcula in Dalmatia. His coat of Arms includes four
chickens. And in Italian, Polo (pollo) means chicken or fowl, while
in Croatian Pilich means chicks or chickens, which was
probably his original name. See [Eterovich],
p. 13. Eterovich cites
about 20 references (mostly Italian, and also English and
German, the oldest one being from 1522),
claiming the Dalmatian roots of Marco Polo, either
from the city of Sibenik or from Korcula, at that time
under Venice. See also Marko
Polo = Marko
Pilich? on this web-site.

The grave of Prince
Mladin III Subic Bribirski, 14th century,
which can be seen in the famous Trogir
Cathedral, contains an extensive
poem carved in the Latin Script,
describing him as

Venice was very important place for
publishing
books of numerous Croatian writers, philosophers and
scientists. It is no surprise that in 17th century a Venetian master
Bartol
Occhi published a catalogue of Croatian books, in which the
central Venetian pier (Riva degli Schiavoni) was called Riva
od Harvatou, and the catalogue
was sold in his
workshop in this very street. Precisely in front of the
grand hotel Danieli Excelsior in this pier, there is an
inscription (hardly legible) showing that this part of Venetian harbour
had
been reserved for ships from islands of Hvar and Brac: FINE
DI STAZIO DEI ABITANTI DELLA BRAZZA E DI LESINA (Lovorka
Coralic).

Another
important Benedictine monastery, unfortunately almost
totally ruined, built probably in the 11th century, is the one in Rudine
(Western Slavonia, near Pozega). A sensational discovery were the
exotic human-like figures (like on the photo, see also here)
and some glagolitic inscriptions.
Professor Andjela Horvat, historian, discovered stone inscription with BRAT
IAN, from 12th or 13th
centuries. This is the oldest
known
Latin inscription in the Croatian language.

From 1102 the Croats had shared together
with Hungarians a newly built state under common Hungarian and Croatian
Kings. The Kings were crowned twice: with the Hungarian and the
Croatian crown.
From that time
on, the Croats were dreaming about having their own independent state,
and it was revived after almost nine centuries in 1991.

During this very long
period parts of Croatian soil
were dominated by Venetians, Italy (in the first half of the
20th century), the Ottoman Empire and the Habsburgs. Among all the
nations reigned by the
Habsburgs (Czechs, Poles, Slovenians
and others) the Croats are together with Austrians and Hungarians
the only ones who have preserved an
uninterrupted continuity of their state since the Early
Middle Ages. Furthermore, as stated by one of best Croatian
historians
Vjekoslav Klaic,
the Croatian Kingdom was the oldest one
in the Habsburg Monarchy, older than Austrian, Hungarian, or
Czech Kingdom.

During many centuries the
Croats had their bans
(viceroys)
and their assembly called (Deit).
The oldest known Sabor was held in Split in 925 and in 928
(devoted more to religious than to secular questions), and in
1076 when Dmitar Zvonimir
was elected the Croatian
King by the "unanimous choice of the clergy and the people".
The Croats preserved these important state institutions of ban
and Sabor also
when they decided to enter the Habsburg
state (1527-1918). Today the Sabor has the meaning of the
Croatian Parliament.

The oldest known minutes of
Croatian Deit (Hrvatski
sabor),
dating from 1273
(Conclusions of the Deit of the Kingdom of Slavonia, held in Zagreb)

It
would be difficult even to trace interesting historical
personalities that connect the Croats with other nations.
So Ivan VI Frankapan
was a master of the Royal Palace
Stäkebórg, and also led the entire estate of the
Royal
Court in Sweden.
He lived there from 1427(?) until 1433, and was a close
friend to Eric
VII of Pomerania, the second
common King of
Denmark, Sweden and Norway. How did Ivan VI get there?
Well, when King Eric VII travelled to the Holly Land in
1424, he also passed through parts of Croatia. His travel
back to his homeland also led him through Croatian lands. It
is known that he visited Dubrovnik,
Omis
and Senj.
It was
probably in Senj that King Eric VII met Ivan VI, and made
friends with him. Ivan VI Frankapan became known in Sweden
as Johann Valle
or Jany Franchi.
During an uprising of
Swedes
against the Danish authorities, led by Engelbreksston, Ivan
VI was at the Royal Palace. Upon his return to Croatia he
became the Ban (viceroy) of Croatia.I owe
this information to dr Petar Strcic,
director of the Archives of HAZU (Croatian Academy of
Sciences and Arts). For more information see

Dr. Mladen Ibler:Count Ivan
Anz Frankopan, the Royal steward of the estate in Sweden
1426-1434, [PDF,
14 pp] (many thanks to Nenad
Bach for
sending me the article). Mr. Ibler was ambassador of the Republic of
Croatia in Sweden.

Very
important personality in Croatian
history is Ban Josip
Jelacic (1801, Petrovaradin -
1859, Zagreb). We offer you
quite interesting presentation of the Jelacic
family (in French), written by
a descendent of this noble family in France,
Monsieur Michel
Iellatchitch.

From 1918 to 1929
Croatia was one of the states in the
Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenians. In 1929 it was renamed
Yugoslavia and existed as such until 1941 and as a communist state from
1945 to 1991. The Croats are despite all the difficulties
the only ones among all the nations of former Yugoslavia whose state
has had uninterrupted continuity since the ninth century.

The territory of former Yugoslavia
(named so in 1929) was a point of contact of three very
different worlds in its past:

the Catholic West,

the Orthodox East,

and Islam.

Only Slovenia, situated
to the west of Croatia, was
relatively safe from the threat of Orthodox Christians and Islam. This
is why the Republic of Slovenia was nationally the most compact and
economically the most developed region in former Yugoslavia. Please,
note the difference between Slovenia, Slovakia
and Slavonia,
which is a part of Croatia. The origin
of all these names is the same - derived from the name of SLOVO (=
word), from which then
the names of Slovinje, Slovinci, Sloveni,
Slovenci,
Slovani, Slaveni were coined.

It is lovely and amusing to see how in
Slovak language one says "Slovenian - Slovakian dictionary": Slovinsko
- Slovenski slovnik. And in
Slovenian language, the same would be Slovensko
- Slovaski slovar!

In Slovenian part of Istria, near Italian
border (south of Trieste) there is a small town of Hrvatini
(=
the Croats). It is indicative that the most widespread second name in
Slovenia is Horvat
(= Croat). The Croats living for centuries
in present-day Slovenia do not have the status and rights of national
minority (3% of entire population of Slovenia), contrary to much
smaller national minority of Slovenians in Croatia (0,47% of population
in Croatia; see Hrvatske knjige izvan Hrvatske, Hrvatska matica
isljenika, Zagreb 2009, p13).

Srb
is a small village near the spring
of the river
Una (north of Knin). Serbian linguists see
this name as a trace of the Serbian name (Serb -> Srb?).
However, according to academician Petar Simunovic the name
of Srb originates
from an old Croatian verb serbati,
srebati = to sip,
from which the noun "srb" has been derived (see his interview in Fokus,
30.09.2005).
Thus "srb"
denotes the spring of river Una, where the village lies. In fact, there
are as many as fifty water springs.
Compare with the villages of Srbani
(near Pula),
and Srbinjak,
both in
Istria, which clearly have nothing to do with the Serbian
name. The Istarski
razvod
from 13th century mentions the name of srbar,
meaning a water spring. In Sokol & Sokol,
p. 29, it is emphasised that the name of the town of Srb is not
an ethnonym, but hydronym: "Već je N. Klaić dobro napisala da Ljudevit
iz Siska nije pobjegao nikakvim
Srbima nego u S/a/rb u Lici, koji je još i danas ondje, a u
srednjem vijeku bio znani grad i plemićka općina, odnosno županija. On
međutim nije
etnonim, nego hidronim, te svojom sličnošću
pučkim etimolozima stvara nerješive probleme, pa tako i kod
Einharda".
Dr. Vladimir Sokol was the first to indicate that the name of Croatian
town of Srb is in fact a hydronim, and not an ethnonym.

In the town of Vrbnik
there is an expression "palenta se serbje",
that is, "paletna se srka", that is, "polenta is being sipped"
(according to personal investigation of dr. Sanja Vulić in Vrbnik).
There is the town of Srbljani
in Istria (peninsula in Croatia), 5 km south of the town of Pazin. The
meaning of srbati
is "upijati vodu", that is, to "absorb water". Information in this
paragraph by the courtesy of dr. Sanja Vulić, 2014.